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South Knoxville club owner fighting nuisance closure

Knoxville city workers board up Club Dejavu after Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steven Sword issued an order declaring the Chapman Highway club a public nuisance and ordered it closed Friday, April 8, 2016. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)(Photo: MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)Buy Photo

Knoxville city workers board up Club Dejavu after Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steven Sword issued an order declaring the Chapman Highway club a public nuisance and ordered it closed Friday. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL) (Photo: Michael Patrick)

Club Dejavu owner Kevin Cherry (Facebook)

Club Dejavu owner Kevin Cherry said the real trouble didn't start at his South Knoxville nightclub until he lost the contracted security provided by off-duty deputies.

Cherry and co-owner Kenneth Ray have been ordered to appear before Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steve Sword for a show-cause hearing Thursday morning, following a nuisance raid by police that shut down the business last week.

A nuisance petition filed April 7 by the Knox County District Attorney General's Office cites 10 incidents at the club, 2619 Chapman Highway, since November 2014, including fights, assaults and shootings. The latest was on March 26, when police say a gang fight spilled into the parking lot and erupted in gunfire.

The rounds struck several cars and shot out windows of the club, the neighboring Disc Exchange and Allen Sign Company across Chapman Highway. Officers later recovered 55 shell casings. No one was wounded, and no arrest has been announced.

Two other shootings were reported outside Club Dejavu, one in February and one in December. Neither resulted in injuries.

The hip-hop club had routinely employed four to eight off-duty Knox County Sheriff's Office deputies at a time to provide security in the parking lot until the KCSO ended the arrangement in January, the owner said.

"I'm not throwing them under the bus, but I did my part," Cherry said. "Once we lost the sheriff, we lost control of the outside."

KCSO spokeswoman Martha Dooley said the security was pulled after the deputies relayed the problems at Club Dejavu.

"There were also prior charges on the owner, so (Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones) pulled the officers off the job," Dooley said.

According to Knox County court records, Cherry, 29, has a single conviction for simple possession of marijuana in 2005.

The club owner said he later contacted the Knoxville Police Department to arrange off-duty security, but was refused without explanation.

KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk said the request for security was denied based on police intelligence, "along with activities that were ongoing on his property."

"He was told that he could come in so we could talk about those activities, to make corrective measures and re-evaluate his request," DeBusk said. "But he never made an appointment. Never heard from him again."

Cherry said he tried to contact KPD officials again after the March 26 shooting, but his call was not returned.

"I want my business to last — I don't want a typical two- or three-year night club," Cherry said. "I want to work with KPD."

An online petition in support of reopening Club Dejavu had garnered more than 280 supporters at www.change.org by Wednesday night.

The Friday raid that left Club Dejavu boarded up was the 47th such closure by local authorities under the state nuisance law.

Cherry questioned the decision to target his business, noting the Studio X nightclub, 1915 Cumberland Ave., remains in business after several shootings in and around the campus-area nightspot in recent years.

In July 2014, a known Crips gang member was shot dead and four other people were wounded in the courtyard fronting Studio X. According to court testimony, that shooting followed a confrontation a month earlier between shooting victim Adarius Boatwright and his convicted killer, Marquail Patterson, at Club Dejavu.

Cherry also pointed to the LaRumba and Millennium clubs in Bearden that were shut down in March 2014 after numerous shootings, stabbings, fights and alcohol violations, as well as hundreds of calls to E-911.

According to nuisance petitions, representatives of police and prosecutors met with the shared ownership of both clubs nearly a year before the businesses were raided in an attempt to explain the nuisance statute and help stop the violence.

Cherry said no such invitation was made to him or to Ray, his business partner.

Knox County Deputy District Attorney General Kyle Hixson defended the office's reasoning in shutting down Club Dejavu.

"We are confident that our actions were appropriate given the history of the property and the nature of the multiple incidents described in our petition," Hixson said in a written statement Wednesday. "We look forward to presenting our proof to the court, if that becomes necessary."

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